Nestled between chickpea pasta and apartments for Los Angeles' homeless on Time magazine's list of the year's 25 best inventions is Fluidigm's Juno.
The system cuts the time it takes to amplify DNA down to a handful of hours, Time says. As GenomeWeb reported in September 2014, the Juno system relies on an integrated fluidic circuit that allows for pre-amplification and genotyping of up to 96 samples and 96 assays on a single chip. The company also said that the system could analyze as little as 5.5 nanograms of DNA at a concentration of 2.5 nanograms per microliter of sample.
This quick turnaround time, Time says, then frees researchers up "to concentrate on actual analysis."
The company has noted, as GenomeWeb reported, that it sees the Juno system as a tool for clinical labs, biorepositories, cell culture facilities, and agbio researchers and companies, among others.
"We see a lot of possibilities for clinical labs and hospitals," Marc Unger, a senior vice president at Fluidigm, tells Time. "We really want to help.
Other inventions on the list include the 'hoverboard' scooter, the Casper mattress-in-a-box, and the Tesla Model X.